1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for obtaining data to be processed by performing a communication with an image processing apparatus externally connected through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with image processing apparatuses becoming more sophisticated, an image processing system has been known in which an image processing apparatus uses a network infrastructure configured, via Ethernet (registered trademark), of a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), or the Internet to perform data processing required for image processing. Correspondingly, image processing apparatuses tend to have various modules mounted thereon. Therefore, for example, a storage device storing data, such as an address book, is required to manage the address book or the like as efficiently as possible.
For this purpose, a technology has been known in which data with less frequency of use of the image processing apparatus is downloaded and obtained from a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server externally connected thereto in response to a request from a user.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-236212 discloses an image processing system in which an image processing apparatus obtains data necessary for processing from an external device externally connected thereto through a network. Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-272687 discloses an information processing apparatus including a customizing unit that customizes a correspondence relation between obtained items and management items based on an image obtained from a sheet having described therein the correspondence relation with the management items of user information. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-272486 discloses a network communication system in which an LDAP server is accessed for authentication even if the user gets only domain authentication.
Although such conventional technologies explained above have been known, there has been the need of an image processing apparatus allowing a user of the image processing apparatus to further efficiently perform a process of obtaining data from an apparatus, such as an externally-connected server. Also, it will be preferable to allow even data, such as an address book input by using a personal computer to be used by the image processing apparatus as its own data without requiring the user to perform a conversion process.